March 23, 2008
Well, this should have been Week 1/Day 3, but it’s not. I went ahead and restarted the C25K/10K program, because….
I have a running partner!
MB has decided that she wants to complete the C25K program and since I had just started it last week, I told her that I wouldn’t mind restarting and so we went out this morning and started it over.
Since I can’t seem to figure out the new Cool Running/Active merge site (It will only allow me to login to Active and not Cool Running - ARGH!), I’ll just keep logging stuff here.
We actually trained outside this time, and we’ll actually do that two out of the three days of training per week. That will actually be better, because running outside is definitely better than running on the treadmill, in my mind anyway, when preparing for a race.
Our totals were:
Time: 39:22
Distance: 2.11
Pace: 18:41
However, out total time and distance was so long because I overshot our course and we ended up having to walk more than anticipated to get back to our cars. No big whoop, of course, but increased the pace by more than it would have been due to increased walking.
Our actual times for the C25K training portion were:
Time: 32:00
Distance: 1.77
Pace: 17:59
So, while I miss all of the data aspects of the treadmill (no way to measure incline and can only use an online calculator for calories burned), it is definitely nicer training outside due to the increased times. Our pace was 34 seconds faster than my pace on Thursday on the treadmill and we went farther. So, this will definitely be nice.
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It was also nice too that I got to tell her about my past running experiences, which was nice to share and also remotivated me. She’s committed to doing Run With Nature with me and even though I mentioned doing the 10K portion of it, instead of 5K, I think I’ll just stick to the 5K for now, and then move onto the 10K of one of the other races in the summer.
It’s actually been really awesome restarting this running adventure. When we were talking about running yesterday, she mentioned that she didn’t have anything to hold her iPod, which caused me to actually hunt down one of the iPod holders that I have, which caused me to find my little bag of running stuff that had been put away even before I got pregnant with The Jelly.
I reacquainted myself with my fanny pack which still has some of the Quench gum in it, along with a little tube of sun screen, chap stick, a pen and a couple of hair bands. I also found the earphones that I use while running, my hats and even found the bib from the last race I ran, which will need to go into the scrapbook.
Finding all of that stuff and talking to MB about my race experiences a few years ago, and I’m totally remotivated. Also, rereading a lot of stuff on this site. I know I was updating while pregnant, but while doing so, I sort of just ignored all of the fitness stuff. On Thursday, I actually went through and reread all of my goals page and the races and the running schedule stuff. It brought back great memories and is adding to my motivation to get there again. I need to reopen my excel spread sheet of my mileage goals and really sit down and figure out what races I’m doing this year and see what’s what. I’m excited!!
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I definitely owe my husband thanks for all of this, too. I think it’s really his doing that I got restarted.
Since we’re renters, with the way the housing market is going, it only makes sense that we are looking to buy. However, we are being realistic and doing our homework and basically taking advantage of any and everyone we know that is connected to the real estate business and getting as much information as we can. Back at the beginning of the year, we were hoping to buy right around now, but in talking to Jesse’s aunt (home loan consultant), we realized that it might be closer to May or June and in watching the market, redoing finances, and basically just trying to figure out the very best time for all the planets to align and things to click into place… we’re probably looking around this Summer or the beginning of 2009. A lot of factors are in play and so basically, we’re hoping within the year this will happen.
Well, all of this is to say that we’re in this house longer than we anticipated at the end of the year, when The Jelly was born. So, we had to really look at the house and do some major reorganization. Our bedroom was just getting too cramped with The Jels in there with us and so we decided to go ahead and convert the office into a nursery for her, but that left us in a lurch with where to put the office stuff. Some creative organizing and a weekend of moving the house around later and while I’m not thoroughly happy with the way our house is laid out, it’s only temporary and I guess I can deal with it for the next year or so.
Part of that organizing involved Jesse giving me the most wonderful present he could at the time. He moved the treadmill back inside. It’s been in the garage for well over six months, and although I’ve been walking with MB outside for months and months now, she’s been back to work since the beginning of March and I’ll be going back in April, and so we only have the weekends to walk together now. (And usually, we don’t. Our families just end up going out to dinner together. Poo!)
So, I definitely needed something to happen so that I didn’t lose the very little progress that I’d made since giving birth in December; therefore, getting the treadmill inside was, again, one of the best things that Jesse could have done for me. I really don’t like that it’s in the living room, but again. It’s temporary, so I’ll just deal.
However, in my true fashion, I’ve had to warm-up to my old friend again. It’s just sat there and gotten dusty. I clean it off when housecleaning, but other than storing The Jelly’s gymini (which we can’t leave on the floor, lest it become covered in cat hair and the dog stealing all of the hanging toys) I haven’t done much with the treadmill in the weeks that it’s been inside.
But with Folsom’s Run With Nature coming up in May and with one of the Dance Moms poking me about running the 10K portion, instead of the 5K, I decided I better get busy and get my butt back into gear and so that’s why I finally rejoined Weight Watchers and restarted the C25K program.
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Yeah, I rejoined Weight Watchers. That’s been really difficult.
The day after I rejoined, I was able to articulate to Jesse what my problem was. I told him: “The first time I joined Weight Watchers, I had a chip on my shoulder because I didn’t think that I needed it; this time I have a chip on my shoulder because I realize that I do.”
And even though I realize that I need it, rejoining hasn’t been all Sunshine and Roses. It hasn’t been a Coming Home kind of experiences and, again, it’s just been really difficult and in all honesty, I’ve just walked away with my ego kind of crushed.
I don’t take to change well and having to resettle into a meeting with a new group of people has been hard. In fact, I started on a Monday, went on a Tuesday the following week and this week I may try out the Saturday meeting. While I have seen two leaders and one receptionist who were there when I was a member over a year ago, none of them recognized me and and, again, I know it’s ALL ego, but having just ONE person tell me “Welcome Back” would do wonders, I think.
So, as I said I think I might try out the Saturday meeting this week. I am pretty sure the leader is still the same as she was back when I was there before and I am pretty sure that she will remember me. Also, if a lot of the same members are still there, I hope I can get at least one “Welcome Back”.
I know it shouldn’t be as important as it feels to me right now, and I’m not letting it derail me at all; but I cannot shake the irritation of people not recognizing me and damn, I am realizing how very dramatic all of this sounds.
How dare they not recognize me?!?! Don’t you know who I am???
I seriously need to work on losing some weight so that it’s easier for me to climb that ladder that will once again help me get the heck over myself.
Maybe the first step would be to just go back to the Monday or Tuesday meeting this week.
Of course, I don’t want to do that just because we had Peanut Butter’s birthday celebrations the past two days and while it was a blast (MB and her family didn’t leave until 9:30 last night - good times!), I ate far too much pizza, cake, candy and generally crappy food. I need this full week to relose this six pound spike in my weight.
So, maybe I’ll go on Saturday and get the ego stroke. Who knows?
All I know is that every little step I’m taking on this journey is getting me closer and closer to the place I was two years ago when I was on track and motivated and that’s what’s important.
Because honestly, that’s what it’s all about and even though my return to Weight Watchers hasn’t been filled with Fanfare and Parades and I don’t feel like it’s been Roses and Sunshine and Rainbows and Butterflies, what it has been is successful. That’s the part that I should be hanging onto, rather than the ego.